Category Archives: made for tv

Post navigation

With the economic inequality we are suffering through thanks to the one percent’s out of control greed the story line behind DC’s latest animated movie is a timely one. It’s an adaptation of the Court Of Owls arc from Batman in The New 52 line and in Gotham economic inequality comes in the form a secret society made up of the city’s one percent and their children and their descendants, yes, this society was instrumental in the very creation of Gotham centuries before and they call themselves The Court Of Owls. Their objective is to keep the disease of greed flourishing which means Gotham has to suffer for that happen.

In the last Justice League movie subtitled, War, the movie ended with the heroes tentatively considering forming some kind of “league” to better defend the world. In this movie they finally come up with their destined name, Justice League, as we learn from Steve Trevor from a phone call while on his way to their S.T.A.R. Lab’s headquarters. Justice League tested better he tells whomever’s on the other end of the line.

By the time Season One of Young Justice was done and over, at the time, as I mentioned in the review of that season, I had only seen the opening two-parter, the ending episode and a couple of episodes in the middle, and I was left kind of luke warm to not overly interested in the show as a whole. When news first circulated about Season Two, the first thing that kind of got me “back in the game,” so to speak, was the ‘Invasion’ subtitle being added. What I instantly took from this was that Season Two was going to be “different” than Season One, and for me, at that moment, was a good thing. I think it was the eventual news about the plotline of Season Two and it’s shorter season that had me really interested but a little concerned.

I think at this point it’s safe to assume Greg Weisman is as important to super hero toons as Bruce Timm is. And that’s saying a lot since Timm redefined DC entertainment on TV with his first super hero toon Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995). Since then he’s created, Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Green Lantern just to name a few. But Greg Weisman made an impressive debut with his own animated superhero toon, The Spectacular Spider-Man (2008-2009), that ran a very short but impressive two seasons, he then stepped up his game with Young Justice, and then stepped it up even more with Young Justice: Invasion (2012-2013), which I personally think is the better of the two seasons, but I’ll save my praise and extensive talk about that one when I eventually do it’s review.

I’ve always wondered why certain crimes get more notoriety than others. With serial killers it’s understandable, they’re the most evil of evildoers and that fascinates us, but what of people who only kill one person, or a small group, and never kill again? Is it the murder, or the murderer, or both? Take Lizzie Borden’s 1892 ax murder of her father and stepmother. I’m sure she wasn’t the first woman to kill another human being with an ax, so why does she go down in infamy when others don’t?

No disrespect to Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1998), Batman Beyond (1999-2001), or any of the other DC super hero toons that came before, which are all fine in their own right, but, for me, Justice League Unlimited (2004-2006) is DC’s pinnacle of excellence in their history of TV toons and the last word on anything related to the Justice League, thus making Justice League (2001-2004) their second best super hero team toon. But DC had more successes after that namely in the form of Young Justice: Invasion (2012-2013), which was the second season of Young Justice. I wasn’t a total fan of their first season, the animation was inconsistent, being excellent for a few eps then sub par for another, but when Invasion came along the animation in my opinion stayed consistent and excellent for the entire 20 episode arc and the story was more focused. Now during this time DC decided to create their first CGI hero toon and give Hal Jordan his shot at the big time.

There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call theTwilight Zone.

I was always a bigger fan of The Outer Limits (1963-1965) than I was of The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) when they were both in re-runs during my childhood (my brother liked it more than I did), nevertheless I saw enough of the series to cull a mental list of favorite episodes I never forgot about. This new collection here gathered enough of them that it attracted my attention and made me want to review it.

.

The complete re-mastered horror anthology series from

“Tales From The Darkside” Executive Producer Richard P. Rubinstein

.

From modern-fables of fear, to stories that uncover

the trembling terrors of times past, each episode of this

acclaimed series harbors a terrible secret—it’s very own

gruesome monster to haunt your dreams in tales of

mystery, suspense and imagination.

.

—Monsters: The Complete Series (back cover)

.

Pretty much every movie I saw during my formative years (this also includes my 20s) I consider “memory movies,” which means they come with a memory, or memories, of when I saw them and how they affected me. I have two video towers, a smaller cabinet and a desk drawer chock full of memory movies. I can also apply this term to certain series I’ve seen like, Space: 1999, Star Trek (Original Series/Next Generatio/Enterprise), The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, etc. The review you are about to read is the tale of one such series that is full of nostalgic moments.

I’m writing this portion of the review on Black Friday 2013 and as of right now there’s no word yet on what extra features, if any, will be included. I’m hoping the commercial I saw in summer ’88 will be added.

“Perhaps somehow, it was a final act of faith. I don’t know. I have no thoughts.”

I suppose it’s all relative.

Every generation of movie lovers has their own era of “memory movies” they will always wax nostalgic over and hold dear to them. Today’s kids have slick looking shows, sometimes questionable CGI and the SyFy channel (once known as the SciFi Channel) while we Gen-Xers had the more languid and plot centered horror and science fiction TV movies of the 70s and 80s to affect us in all manner of joy and fear. Not that they were all that way, but I tell you a lot of the time I prefer that style to this eras heavy on effects and show all directive.

I have to admit, I used to think TV shows were for dweebs (yes, I did just say that). My opinion of excellent television used to be The Nanny (which still stands) and I even took the time to watch the pilot episode of My Big Fat Greek Life (no regrets there either!). While emotionally I haven’t matured much since that time, I have to admit that in the last few years I’ve noticed an incredible explosion in the quality of serial entertainment.

While I’m completely ignorant and probably missing something, I’d have to argue that this trend is much in part to the unforgiving quality and content that has been popping up on AMC (which is a major player in the list). Because of this, I’ve found myself more often gravitating towards television series over film – a medium which has the capacity to allow the viewer to connect with the characters and story on a level that a film cannot, literally allowing the show to become part of their lives.

So with that said, these are the Top TV shows of 2013 I believe no one should be without: